Referenced Symbols

U.S. stocks were ticking lower with online stocks Priceline and InterActiveCorp. set to open sharply lower on profit warnings. Concerns over increasing U.S. regulatory risk for fund management companies continue dominate headlines in business. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is setting his sights on Deutsche Bank
DB,
+2.10%,
a person familiar with the situation told CBS MarketWatch overnight. Mutual fund group Alliance Capital
AC,
-3.11%
may face regulatory action for improper trading in mutual funds, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing sources. In London, shares of fund manager Amvescap
AVZ,
+6.66%
dropped 2.6 percent. "Spitzer and SEC's investigations of market timing and other practices is expanding," Morgan Stanley in London told clients.

Global Markets

Broker action

Merrill Lynch cut its rating on Smith & Nephew
SNN,
+3.55%,
a medical equipment maker, to neutral from buy on valuation. J.P. Morgan Securities raised its rating on ad agency Interpublic Group
IPG,
+3.97%
to neutral from underweight, citing expectations the company "could turn out to be an attractive restructuring investment

New York Stock Exchange, interim chairman John Reed has unveiled his proposed reforms for the Big Board. In a speech Wednesday, Reed proposed taking authority over the exchange away from Wall Street and handing it to an independent board of eight directors from outside the securities industry.

Intel Corp.
INTC,
+2.17%
were down 0.1 percent at $33.64 - in line with the small declines for the Nasdaq 100 bellwethers. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are reporting that the company has made a technological breakthrough to better chip performance. Intel said the breakthrough seeks to prevent the electrical current from leaking.

Dean Foods
DF,
+4.00%
said it was notified that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering bringing a civil injunctive action against the company. The SEC's "Wells Notice" alleges the food and beverage company "aided and abetted" The Fleming Companies by providing correspondence that allowed Fleming to accelerate revenue recognition. Shares were not seeing active trade on the ECNs.

The Financial Times Deutschland reported overnight that Hewlett-Packard
HPQ,
+5.70%
has instructed advisors to scout for takeover targets in the European information technology services sector.

Watson Pharmaceuticals
WPI,
-2.46%
posted a third-quarter profit of 47 cents per share, up from the prior year's 43 cents and two cents ahead of Wall Street's consensus as determined by Reuters Research

Shares of InterActiveCorp
IACI
slumped $3.50, or 9.5 percent, to $33.50 in Instinet after the Internet services company reported third-quarter earnings.

Dealers said Priceline
PCLN
dropped to $22.60 - close to a 23 percent slide after warning overnight. Slumping airline ticket sales were behind the concerns.

Esperion Therapeutics
ESPR,
+4.37%
surged close to 17 percent to $20.40. After the close Tuesday, it said results of a new study show its investigational product candidate, ETC-216, reduced the size of plaque in coronary arteries and reversed atherosclerosis.

Adidas-Salomon, the second largest sporting brand group in the world, is expecting to launch an international branding campaign in the first quarter to combat an orders slowdown that's stemming from North America. Its CEO denied the company is losing market share to competitor Nike
NKE,
+1.41%
in the U.S.

Toyota
TM,
+2.29%
earned 524.5 billion yen ($4.81 billion) in the six months to Sept. 30 as revenues climbed 8 percent. The results were better than expected. More than anything, it was Toyota's strong sales in North America that propelled earnings in the first half.

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CHICAGO (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Circuit City retreated 5 percent Monday as investors and analysts all but gave up on a takeover of the electronics chain amid news of another specialty retailer's acquisition.

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